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Tales of Muslim Spain (SPAN30022)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2020

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Overview

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This subject taught in Spanish and English, takes students on a journey from Madrid to southern Spain and Morocco. It is available to students from the Spanish program as well as to breadth students with no Spanish language proficiency. Tales of Muslim Spain offers you the opportunity to study the historical influence of Muslim culture on Spain through a combination of course work; lectures; visits to cities, villages, and landscapes; and on-site experiences, including flamenco events, concerts, nightlife, gastronomic experimentation and visits to art galleries. The subject will equip students with the conceptual and practical tools for developing intercultural sensitivity and adaptability. Students will gain, too, a rigorous understanding of Spain as a nation and kingdom uniquely positioned between Africa and Europe. We will examine its Muslim past, imperial history and its emergence as a modern nation. Third-year students will additionally examine the role of historical fiction in contemporary nation building as Spain seeks to reimagine and manage its relationship with its past by re-framing its treatment of Muslim communities in order to project a self-image of religious and cultural tolerance.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of subject students should be able to:

  • Explain what is unique about Spain's historical relationship with both Europe and Africa with reference to theory;
  • Analyse Spanish nationalism and imperialism and its influence on contemporary Spain through multiple lenses;
  • Identify how Spain's Muslim history is expressed in its iconic cultural forms, including dance, cuisine and art;
  • Characterise Spain's relationship with Islam and with Spain's autonomous cities in North Africa;
  • Appraise and discuss cross-cultural issues with reference to theory;
  • Demonstrate an independent and critical approach to learning through participation in on-site experiences;
  • Critically reflect on the impact that first-hand experiences of cultural events and objects have on learning;
  • Evaluate the role of historical fiction in the self-narration of Spanish identity, and
  • Identify the Moorish influence on Spanish vocabulary learnt on-site;

Generic skills

  • The ability to contextualise views through key social, historical and political lenses;
  • Increased critical self-awareness and openness to new ideas;
  • Developed oral and written intercultural communication skills;
  • Increased capacity for intelligible and economic self-expression;
  • Increased confidence speaking publicly before peers and teachers;
  • Developed time management and work planning skills;
  • Developed analytical and critical skills;
  • Improved research skills;
  • Enhanced information literacy skills;
  • Developed an independent approach to learning through participation in activities;
  • The ability to identify and describe any perceived learning difficulty

Last updated: 6 December 2024